Afton Chemical Asia gets Honourable Mention

AFTON Chemical Asia Pte Ltd has got an Honourable Mention in the Best Practices category of the EENP Awards for its Plant Air Compressor Energy Reduction project. The company is a global specialty chemical additives business which develops additives for fuels, driveline fluids, engine oils and industrial lubricants.

An air compressor energy reduction project was initiated as part of the company's energy reduction projects aimed at improving energy efficiency and minimising waste in its Singapore chemical additive manufacturing facility.

Senior production engineer Koh Kar Boon and maintenance supervisor Kumar Varadharajan identified that the batch production nature of the facility with varying start/stop timing for three production units resulted in uneven utilisation of compressed air during power handling, Sean Spencer, vice president and managing director, Afton Chemical Asia Pte Ltd, tells BT.

The team studied the pattern of header pressure changes and air compressor performance to get a better understanding of the facility's air consumption. Surge line modelling was used to calculate a varying throttle limit for the compressor and build in last stage pressure against surges. The compressor sequence was also adjusted to adapt the header pressure changes and coasting time.

A key challenge was to maintain the stable air supply to the three different production units. Compressor capacity control tuning was done with help of an OEM team. After the adjustments, only one compressor out of the three was required to keep the facility running. A second compressor starts only occasionally to maintain the header pressure when one compressor is unable to meet the demand.

"Our energy efficiency efforts have not only reaped cost savings, but it also means improved equipment reliability and increased equipment availability. Actual annual savings on a system level is 34.2 per cent and 3.2 per cent on a facility level with no capex outlay," says Spencer.

"We are honoured to receive an honourable mention for the EENP Awards 2021 by NEA for Afton Singapore chemical additive manufacturing facility's air compressor energy reduction project. Sustainability is an integral part of the way we manufacture and do business. Energy efficiency is one of the key metrics that we are always striving to improve on for our equipment and systems."

Across Afton globally, several energy reduction projects have been initiated to eliminate over 2,000 MT of CO2 equivalent in 2020. Its process ERP solutions also allows it to monitor plant equipment efficiency remotely as well.

Says Spencer: "Besides the air compressor energy reduction project, we are concurrently working on hot oil heater operation optimisation, process chiller running optimisation, tank recirculation pump optimisation, etc."

Afton not only designs and manufactures fuel and lubricant chemical additives that help engines and equipment run more efficiently, it also looks at how it can manufacture them in a sustainable manner.

Afton is also investing in new technologies to enable advancements in mobility, transport, manufacturing and energy to help reduce carbon emissions. For example, solutions for vehicle electrification and wind turbine to support the growing renewable energy market.